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Thursday, 16 October 2014

Bloody November: A Chain of of Command España Campaign in Madrid 1936

Introduction

After
the failed previous July coup, Franco’s colonial troops in North Africa had
reached the outskirts of Spain’s capital city by early November 1936, in an unstoppable
drive, overcoming without contempt all armed opposition found on their way up
from Sevilla.

The
Republican Government has shamelessly left to Valencia with the enemy at the
gates, escaping at night and without notice. But just before leaving, it appointed
the dull and grey General Miaja commander of the garrison defending the city.

However the
orders left to him in a closed envelope at the War Ministry office, opened
during the early hours of November 6th, made it clear that the
Government lacked any hope of the city surviving the Nationalist steamroller, suggesting
instead to put a token resistance at best and then to pull back with the garrison
remnants towards a new defensive line on the road leading to Valencia.

Original Italian CTV 1937 Map of Madrid Area

But
miracles exist, and against all odds the city resisted the attacks of the rebel
columns. The milicianos surprisingly (and unexpectedly) put up a fierce fight
in the southern suburbs of Madrid.

In
the left flank, a Nationalist column was expected to take La Casa de Campo,
a popular natural park west of Madrid and across the Manzanares, used by the madrileños to shelter from the hot
summer afternoons and to picnic on the bank of its famous artificial lagoon
during weekends.

The
attack was launched in the early hours of November 8th but
quickly petered out, although not before conquering a dominant hill within the
park called Cerro Garabitas. This elevation will allow the Nationalists
observers to direct the guns and to merciless pound the central area of Madrid
over the next years.

However, the failure to enter Madrid in
this first push also represented for the Republicans a much needed infusion of
moral and the cry of ¡No pasarán!
now reverberated across the city and Miaja unexpectedly became the people’s hero
and the symbol of the resistance like Petain in Verdun during the Great War.

Defending La República, Winter 1936

The
following days saw renewed Nationalists efforts and much hand-to-hand fighting
among the trees of Casa de Campo woods until on November 13th they finally reached
the river Manzanares.

They
now were in control of a 500 meters strip along the river's west bank,
extending from El Puente (bridge) de los Franceses and Puente Nuevo on the
right, to the crossing overlooking La Ciudad Universitaria (the University
District) on the extreme left.

On
the 15th General Varela ordered Asensio to take these bridges and to move into
Madrid, allocating a squad of Pz Is, also called negrillos due to its dark grey
panzer colour, to provide more weight to the attack.

The Battlefield Area

Asensio’s
“tomorrow I’ll cross the river, with or without tanks” answer to Varela was
taken in literal terms: another bloody fight developed attempting to land at
the other side of the Manzanares and break the Republican defensive system; although
only knee depth most of the tanks got bogged down in the muddy river banks. And
a couple of negrillos that eventually crossed the Puente Nuevo, were later on surrendered
after becoming isolated following the demolition of the bridge by the
Republican engineers.

However,
it was early to call a Republican victory. The forces in Madrid were hardly
more than a bunch of militia units, still great distance away of being true
military concerns, suffering from a scarcity of modern weapons and effective leaders
despite the increasingly noticeable supplies from the Soviet Union, specially
planes and tanks.

On
the Nationalists side the rate of expenditure of the African veterans was
starting to make a dent in their efficiency and moral. Lacking enough men to
push the attack through various fronts, General Varela decided to focus now all
efforts on the left flank crossing the Manzanares at the Parque del Oeste-Coudad
Universitaria line with three of its available columns while making some
diversionary attacks in the southern Madrid districts.

A
decisive week for the survival of the Spanish Republic is about to start...

The Campaign

This an ambitious campaign designed to be played with Chain of Command (CoC), the TooFatlardies highly successful skirmish combat rules in a Second World War environment. This campiagn combines the three main
companion CoC supplements published so far:

Chain of Command España, the free-downloadable adaptation to
the Spanish Civil War, including many new special features of this conflict not
covered by the main book, all necessary army lists and their support assets as well as a
detailed analysis of the different forces involved.

Big Chain of Command,also available as free download, introducing
new game mechanisms to play with more than 1 platoon per side.

At the Sharp End,the campaign adaptation rules
available for purchase at the TFL official website.

The campaign follows the At the Sharp
End’s original ladder system where
you can follow the exploits of your forces through a series of interlinked
games. This is an abbreviated full map campaign setup around the attack through the University District (Ciudad
Universitaria) during the dramatic and decisive days between November 15thand 19th 1936. The ladder is made of five rungs, as
follows:

No time for picnic at Casa de Campo. The initial opening move, testing
the line and determination of the republican forces.

El Manzanares. The arrival to the river line
where the first outposts of the Republican defences were located.

Puente de los Franceses. The crossing of the river,
attacking the main defensive Republican line.

¡A Madrid! Once eventually breached the
Republican defences, the Republican forces retreat into the University District
area pursued by the victorious Nationalists; a fight to control the main
buildings and faculties develops.

Facultad de Medicina. Ciudad Universitaria is now liberated
soil for the Christendom and the only blocking barrier for the complete victory
is the Medicine School. Once overcome, the Nationalists forces would climb the
main streets of Moncloa and Arguelles suburbs and will finally control the
capital city. The foreign non-interventionist governments of France and the UK
will bow and will see as inevitable recognising Franco’s as a legitimate
government.

The Soviet Union and Stalin will
unlikely look for a head-to-head confrontation with the main European powers and
will force a negotiated (or not) surrender of the Republican Government.
Spanish and other international communists will be saved and sent to Russia and
will again fight against the fascists in 1941 among the ranks of the Red
Army... but that’s another story.

Campaign Map (click to enlarge)

Terrain Notes

We provide both a contemporary map and graphic
illustration of the terrain where the actual fight took place to help players
in deigning their game tables. Nonetheless, these are some (hopefully) useful
guides on how we think it may better look:

Scenario 1:Casa de Campo is
a large wooded park in the outskirts of Madrid. The terrain is mostly flat with
some smooth elevations that may block LOS and scattered trees (mostly pines);
as the date is November, it is in the middle of the rainy season, so most
likely will be intersected with small water streams and muddy areas. Rocky
craggy formations and low stone walls here and there can provide some useful
hard cover to the squads deployed.

Internationals at La Casa de Campo 1936

Scenario 2: The Manzanares
river marks the limit between Casa de Campo and the Madridurban area. Note that Casa de Campo is
surrounded by a fairly high brick and masonry wall that will have to be
demolished before crossing (historically several gaps were blown with
explosives to allow the Nationalists Panzer Is to attack the Republican
positions)

The terrain between the river bank and this wall should offer little
cover to the attacker, presenting a light slope towards the river.

The Csa de Campo Wall in the early XXth Century

Scenario 3: The Manzanares is a very narrow river just a few meters
wide and in the drought summer season run almost dry. However, according to
battle reports, the banks and the river bed were in that mid November date
fairly muddy, contributing to bog most of the tank force supporting the Asensio
column. At the crossing, the Regulares had the water at knee level only but
they were hampered by the slippery mud and bank slopes. Historically, the main
bridge (Puente Nuevo) was blown and the rail bridge (Puente de los Franceses)
was impassable for infantry who would be dead ducks if attempting to cross.

Republican fortifications at Puente de los Franceses

Scenario 4:The Ciudad
Universitaria was the University District of Madrid built in the early 30s. By
the time of battle it has not been fully developed. The area had several large
multi-storey buildings connected with wide roads and became during the battle
almost a small “Stalingrad”: to game this scenario you can use large
half-ruined buildings surrounded with debris, shell craters, walls, barricades,
even some destroyed tram model or remnants of vehicles etc.

Aerial View of La Ciudad Universitaria in the 1930s

Trenches and the effect of the fight at Casa Velázquez

A Bilbao at Ciudad Universitaria

Scenario 5: The Faculty of Medicine was one of the largest building
compounds of the university deep in the end of the Madrid University campus, flanked by the Veterinary and the Odontology Faculties buildings. The fight for
the control of this building may involve floor to floor close combats as well
as room to room, floor to floor melees; like an Stalingrad in miniature, this is the place where the bayonet and the hand grenade reigns.

Opposing Forces

The Nationalist forces will be
elements of the Columna 1 commanded by the Teniente Coronel Asensio. This will
comprise 1 platoon each of the Primer (first) and Tercer (third) Tabor de
Regulares de Tetuán and a platoon of the Sexta (sixth) Bandera del Tercio de la
Legión.

The Republican forces will include elements
of the Comandante Romero column (communist), Columna Libertad (anarchist)
commanded by Durruti and the International Bon Edgard André.

Each force will be organised as per
the Chain of Command España lists with the supports; on the Republican side,
note that the Comandante Romero forces will use the 5th Regiment while the Columna Libertad he
People’s Militia lists respectively.

Campaign Special Instructions

The campaign is designed to be
played by up to 3 players per side, commanding each of the platoons described.

Each side must appoint a supreme
commander for the campaign, who will plan the orbat for each scenario and will
distribute reinforcements according to the assessment of the general situation
of his side.

In each game a maximum of two
platoons could be deployed by each side.

We suggest playing on two different
but adjoining tables of standard size, with 1 friendly and 1 enemy platoon in
each. The table delimits the area of influence of the platoon commander and the
boundaries must be respected and never breached. Boundaries must be clearly
marked

Players in each side are absolutely
forbidden to talk or pass information to each other by any mean once the game
begins. The actions of his respective commands are independent from each
other.

However, and at the cost of two Chain
of Command Dice, any side can declare the boundaries eliminated and move/fire/
attack to enemies in the adjacent area. It is in that moment that Big CoC force
moral rules apply.

Starting the game

The above text should provide all the needed materials to start playing the campaign, and I hope you find it useful. Nevertheless, feel free to contact me leaving comments here, at my email (gce.mail33@gmail,com) and at the TooFatLardies Yahoo Group. I'm also a regular participant in the most active wargames forum in Spain La Armada beign an unofficial caretaker of those threads dealing with TooFatLardies sets.

We will highly appreciate your comments, critics and suggestions on this campaign.

In my next post I will write the after action report of the first game of the campaign fought in Club Dragón last weekend.

Benito, you have written an amazing piece of a history that deserves to be better known. It's great to see how you are exploiting both your knowledge of the SCW and your familiarity with the tools that TFL offers to do this. I look forward to seeing how this develops, and I will be cheering on the Republicans.Cheers,Michael

About Anibal Invictus

A fairly experienced Spanish wargamer, based in Madrid. Together with a group of friends founder of "Club Dragón" in the early 80s. A truly TooFatLardies gruppie since a first love encounter in 2008, I regularly play the Napoleonic, WWI, WWII and Vietnam periods.